Beth's first communion

Hard to believe it is already May, and I'm falling behind on my blog posts again...  Our last posts featured our Spring Break trip to Louisiana and Texas.  Shortly thereafter, and "inspired" by Beth's successful fishing, Rich and Ann Pruden made their own trip to east Texas for some camping and fishing.  They stopped by our place briefly, but long enough to enjoy a Bragg Family South tradition of coloring Easter eggs outside (helps minimize the inside mess...).  Stephen has been busy with the final weeks of his preschool--they've raised money riding their bikes and trikes, got to look into a big rig cab, and made a trip to the Little Rock Zoo, where Stephen and his best bud Logan enjoyed the carousel:

Now here's a funny looking penguin for you:

But the biggest event of these last few weeks happened last weekend, and that was Beth's First Communion.  We made a big adventure out of the whole weekend, and got a surprise that we didn't expect at all...  On Friday, Kenny and his gifted & talented school class got to go to Little Rock, where they made a couple stops.  Their final stop of the day was a visit to the Clinton Presidential Library.  Hope, the kids, and I traveled up to Little Rock that afternoon to do some shopping and we arranged to pick Kenny up from the library.  Well, it turns out that President Clinton happened to be in town that day to attend the dedication ceremony for the newly renamed Little Rock airport (it is now name for Bill & Hillary) and he was attending some function at his library.  So, to make a long story short, while we're standing in the lobby waiting for Kenny's class to finish their tour, who comes strollin' on by, but the President!  Not that we were ever the Clintons' biggest fans, but, hey, it isn't every day you get to shake hands with the former leader of the free world!  The kids were thrilled, needless to say, except for Stephen, who was playing bashful...  That evening, we dined at a local pizza place:

before heading to our new favorite Little Rock hotel, which just so happens to have a big indoor splash pad and swimming pool:

Our plan was to stay at the hotel until the wee hours of the morning (just after 3 a.m., to be exact), when we'd drive to the Little Rock train station to pick up my mother and brother Bob, who took Amtrak down from Wisconsin for Beth's First Communion.  Well, as the saying goes, the best laid plans of mice and men...Mom and Bob's train was delayed almost five hours due to some flooding in Missouri, so they didn't roll in until almost 8 a.m., which meant I was able to get a good picture of the Little Rock train station:

As impressive as this building is, the train station itself is now a relatively small room at the back, and most of the rest of this grand old building is now some kind of unrelated events hall...

Still, it was interesting to catch glimpses of the passenger train hey-day, such as the old wooden benches:

The boys spent a fair amount of time watching various trains and other equipment pass by the station, including this cool looking rail repair train:

Better late than never, the Amtrak finally rolled into the station, and Mom and Bob disembarked, tired but happy:

Given how late they arrived, we were able to take them to downtown Little Rock, and take advantage of the recently opened farmers' market to buy some fresh, locally grown strawberries and some heirloom tomatoes:

We had a classic southern breakfast at a nearby Waffle House, then drove to Rhinelander.  I fully expect Mom and Bob to want to nap, but Bob decided he needed to help me put shingles on our new carport extension, so up the ladder we went:

With Bob's expertise, we were able to get this whole area shingled in just a few hours.  The next morning (Sunday) was Beth's big event (that's Kenny behind the candle on the far left):

Beth had an active role in her First Communion mass, as she did one of the readings (and read very well, I must add):

Here is a more pensive Beth peeking out from behind her veil:

All of the kids, Beth included, did very well.  Here, she takes the host from Father Raji:

and the communion wine from our good friend Gaylon:

Here, her cohort was all big smiles at the end:

Not a lot of kids, for sure, but we're a fairly small parish.  Below, my mom (Grandma) and brother (Uncle Bobby) pose with Beth:

Here, Beth poses with two of her elementary school teachers, first grade teacher Waynette Woodall (left) and second grade teacher Libby Case:

Next, we have two of our neighbors, Meg Johnson and Jessica Howe:

A little bit of silly posing from Bragg Family South kids:

and a more formal pose with Bragg Family South (yes, that is me in a suit!):

Here is Beth with her "southern grandparents" Ray and Gaylon Marcantel:

After the Mass, we joined the rest of the parish at a social in the church hall, but then had to leave early so Mom and Bob could pack for their return trip later that evening.  The had gotten train tickets on a different Amtrak running out of Mississippi, so we drove them a couple hours east for that...but first, a Stephen-led stop at Winterville Indian Mounds near Greenville, Mississippi:

Mom was quite the trooper, climbing to the top of the big (50+ foot tall) mound:

The Amtrak stops in Greenwood, Mississippi, which had a number of quaint buildings and monuments, including the Confederate soldier memorial outside of the county courthouse:

After a whirlwind visit, Mom and Bob boarded their train northward:

leaving us to console Beth, who always gets choked up when close family visitors leave:

Whew!  What a weekend...and things just keep ramping up for the summer!